Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) in this context is often a type of third generation (3G) cellular network. More technically, WCDMA is often a wideband spread-spectrum mobile air interface that utilizes the direct sequence Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signaling method to achieve higher speeds and support more users compared to the implementation of time division multiplexing (TDMA) used by second generation (2G) networks. It is understood that WCDMA is merely one non-limiting communication technique to which the disclosed subject matter may be applied.
Often a WCDMA device will include a form of gain control. This may generally allow a user to control the strength of a signal transmitted by the WCDMA device. In a typical WCDMA transmitter some portion of the gain-control is built into a pre-amplification driver and the rest of the gain control is frequently distributed amongst a transceiver mixer and base-band filter. The gain control is frequently divided into discrete chunks, called “gain steps”.